Minority of British Citizens want NI to remain part of the United Kingdom

end of the road wrote: »

it is still reunification as the 1 island is uniting under the one government. you may not want reunification with northern ireland but at some stage down the line it is going to happen whether you want it or not. if britain wants it, it will happen. best start getting used to the idea now for your own sake. any of the "arguments" you have put forward will not come to pass as it is highly likely there will be a transition period in which everything will have to be ironed out. as per your next post it's unlikely there will be 2 referendums in the south. they are not required as per the GFA as i understand. only 1 in the north and one in the south.

Have you the lotto numbers for tonight or does your crystal ball only show you the future of Northern Ireland? It's certainly showing you a rose-tinted view of the world if you think unification wouldn't lead to the economic collapse or at least decades of hardship for those of us in the Republic. Any financial support from the UK Exchequer or the EU will only last a relatively short duration and won't cover the full cost of the burden the basket case economy of Northern Ireland would place on us.

I do agree that it's unlikely we'll see 2 referendums, which is a pity imho. It means most of the electorate will be voting for or against from a position of ignorance and we all know how well that seems to be going for the British with Brexit.

Ah great...ANOTHER Northern Ireland bashing thread on After Hours...I can hardly believe it.

OP...I much prefer it when you're predicting snow.

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

As a kid I might have thought NI should be a part of the republic but with the wisdom of age I say I dont want them, we can not afford them and the troubles that would start up from the whole business.

Just 12% think NI should remain part of the UK instead of Brexit? I wonder if only 12% of RoI people want the economic and cultural issues that'll come with NI? We'll need to keep a special armed unit up North, for the terrorists, wannabe terrorists, etc.

Also, we'll need a nice big jail to throw them into.

The UK should be giving the Ulster Unionists land in Scotland, wasn't that originally where they were evicted from in first place, it was the UK who transplanted them there and gave them the name of the Pikes. The UK government should be told to get offsky out of there and this is coming from someone who wouldn't be a mad Republican.

bodhrandude wrote: »

The UK should be giving the Ulster Unionists land in Scotland, wasn't that originally where they were evicted from in first place, it was the UK who transplanted them there and gave them the name of the Pikes. The UK government should be told to get offsky out of there and this is coming from someone who wouldn't be a mad Republican.

Nothing like a lovely bit of ethnic cleansing, eh. While we're at it let's deport all white North Americans back to Europe, all black people back to Africa, all Hispanic south Americans back to Spain and Portugal. Any Irish of Celtic origin will be considered impostors and shipped back to Central Europe in cattle trucks. In fact we might as well go right back and shoe-horn the whole human race into the Horn of Africa since that's where we came from.

irishrebe wrote: »

Mutant z wrote: »

Not surprising really its always been seen as the needy little brother clinging to the coattails of the rest of the UK they just laugh at unionists refering to themselves as British they would drop them in a heartbeat if they could its inevitable it will happen sooner or later.

It always amuses me how so many unionists in the north think the rest of the UK gives a flying f*ck about them. To your average Brit, they are just 'Irish'. If they went around a city centre in England and asked random people who King Billy was and what happens on 12th July, they wouldn't have a notion.

We don’t for the most part. It we really dislike the thought of being in the Irish republic even more. How’s that for you? If you went around a Norn Iron town and asked them to name 5 Irish as in the Republic of Ireland politician even the provo ares up here couldn’t do it. What’s your point? Do most dublin people give a feck about limerick? I doubt it...

timthumbni wrote: »

irishrebe wrote: »

Mutant z wrote: »

Not surprising really its always been seen as the needy little brother clinging to the coattails of the rest of the UK they just laugh at unionists refering to themselves as British they would drop them in a heartbeat if they could its inevitable it will happen sooner or later.

It always amuses me how so many unionists in the north think the rest of the UK gives a flying f*ck about them. To your average Brit, they are just 'Irish'. If they went around a city centre in England and asked random people who King Billy was and what happens on 12th July, they wouldn't have a notion.

We don’t for the most part.  It we really dislike the thought of being in the Irish republic even more. How’s that for you? If you went around a Norn Iron town and asked them to name 5 Irish as in the Republic of Ireland politician even the provo ares up here couldn’t do it. What’s your point? Do most dublin people give a feck about limerick? I doubt it...

That hasn't been my experience. I've met plenty of Unionists who are disappointed and shocked to be called 'Irish' by English people they meet. They feel a loyalty to Britain which isn't really reciprocated. It's not necessarily so much about knowing facts like politician names, more about the fact that they feel part of a nation which treats them with indifference.

timthumbni wrote: »

At least we can pronounce 3 ffs. Lol.

Yeah. "Free poins fuffty"

Gwynplaine wrote: »

If there was a big machine that could cut off Norn Iron and send it off into the Atlantic it would be great. The Irish don't want it, and the Brits don't want it. Cut it off and let them annoy each other away from everyone.
All I see and hear from Stormont is "meetings about discussions, and discussions about meetings, dialogue, more meetings, communiddy, sitcyachun and more talks".
A never ending rindabite of unending annoyance, in a horrible accent.

only some of the irish don't want it.

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Hopefully enough of us don't if it ever comes to a vote.[/quote]
That'll come as a nasty surprise to the Brits, many of whom seem to think Ireland are just dying to get NI back.

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

As a kid I might have thought NI should be a part of the republic but with the wisdom of age I say I dont want them, we can not afford them and the troubles that would start up from the whole business.

Do we really want this:

Ah Chris, you’re not an old man yet. Their bonfires are certainly big and dangerous, but their burning of flags and posters is little more than a minority of scumbaggery in the areas.

end of the road wrote: »

it is still reunification as the 1 island is uniting under the one government. you may not want reunification with northern ireland but at some stage down the line it is going to happen whether you want it or not. if britain wants it, it will happen. best start getting used to the idea now for your own sake. any of the "arguments" you have put forward will not come to pass as it is highly likely there will be a transition period in which everything will have to be ironed out. as per your next post it's unlikely there will be 2 referendums in the south. they are not required as per the GFA as i understand. only 1 in the north and one in the south.

I agree that a UI is the end game, but I don’t think ramming it down peoples throat is the right way to go about it. Give a coherent argument, rather than telling everyone it will happen whether they like it or not. This needs a huge amount of discussion. There is only talk of money and potential violence with no real indepth discussion on either issue.

Greentopia wrote: »

Indeed, facts that seem to be conveniently glossed over or ignored by those who want a united Ireland. Let's see how popular it would be after a few years if we did get a united Ireland and hundreds of thousands of our young people were yet again having to leave the country because the economy has tanked and there are no jobs for them.

You mean like a recession? These things happen regardless and will have little to do with a UI. I actually believe that having a UI would be more beneficial in the long term....now that the UK is leaving Europe. It may take a generation to iron out the wrinkles, but that’s just the way it is. It wont change overnight.

Greentopia wrote: »

Germans are still paying a reunification tax to support their poorer Eastern states 27 years after the reunification of that country.

A project that has so far cost around 1.5 trillion Euro, and yet the former Eastern states still have only 72% of the economic output of the rest of the country. Now if the economic powerhouse of Europe with all their industry and wealth cannot achieve a united country where everyone has equal opportunities after 27 years of massive effort what hope does Ireland have?

More help from the EU yes probably, but it won't come close to covering the costs.

Once a tax is introduced, it very rarely disappears. That unification tax they pay is not being ringfenced for the poorer part of Germany....at least I don’t think so.

There will be a long transition and support payments from both the UK and EU to stabilise the country as it undergoes such a change. It will take a generation to harmonise most things, including the salaries of public service workers. The pensions would need to be paid to Ireland, because there will be various years of contributions which will have been paid to the UK by workers.

Northern Ireland can become a contributor and not just a cost. If only more people gave more of a damn about them than their own pockets.

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

You make the oft-made mistake of believing that the north is populated only by unionists, they're a minority now.

Are they? Your traditional supremacist Protestant Unionist might be a minority but I'd say the people who want the north of Ireland to remain a part of the UK isn't a minority at all i.e those who hold a unionist position.

Sleepy wrote: »

No, ignorance. A lack of knowledge or wisdom. The lack of all the facts.

Those voting for unification will largely be doing so out of a mixture of hatred for the English, romantic views of the Republicans of 1916-21, amnesia about the brutality of the IRA in the 70's/80's and 90's and ignorance of the consequences of a reunification process (or economics in general).

Hatred of the English is not the point, any more than it was in the independance of 26 counties, you don't have to hate someone to not want to be their colony. What does something the IRA did 30 years ago have to with it one way or the other? It is a bit like saying you cannot be in the EU with Germany because of Hitler. Economics certainly needs discussion, but Ireland will be more prosperous unified than divided, although there is a problematic transition.